OCEAN MODELING FOR ENSO

Tropical ocean modeling has played a major part in the development of our knowledge of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the Tropic al Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) decade. Although the foundations had already been laid, it was only with the impetus from TOGA that tropic al ocean modeling was able to develop so extensively. In this paper we discuss the development of the wide range of tropical ocean models in use today,from the simple to the complex; the ways in which their abi lities to reproduce different phenomena have been assessed; and the wa ys in which they are being used to better understand and predict the b ehavior of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system in the tropics. Ocean m odel development is far from finished, however. Outstanding issues suc h as forcing fields, model improvements, testing strategies, and appli cations are also discussed. There is at least as much work to be done in the next decade as was achieved in the last.